By Joan Faus
BARCELONA (Reuters) - Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned on Wednesday that the likely rejection by Catalan pro-independence parties of his Catalan nominee for chairman of Spain's Senate would undermine dialogue and co-existence with the northeastern region.
The potential new rift comes at a difficult time when Sanchez, whose Socialists won last month's general election without securing a parliamentary majority, needs all the support he can get from regional parties to stay in power.
"They (Catalan parties) are not vetoing Miquel Iceta, what they are vetoing is co-existence, dialogue, understanding," Sanchez said during a political event in northern Spain.
The acting premier announced last week that he would nominate Iceta, the Catalan Socialist leader, as chief of the upper chamber of parliament, a move widely seen as a conciliatory signal to Catalonia and its secessionist groups.
Sanchez has made overtures over the past year to establish a dialogue and give Catalonia a greater degree of autonomy, while ruling out an independence referendum for the region.
Catalonia briefly declared independence in 2017 after a referendum deemed illegal by Spanish courts.
The Socialists have a majority in Spain's upper house and had expected the nomination of Iceta to be easily approved.
Still, Iceta, whose Socialists are not part of Catalonia's pro-independence camp, would first need to be designated as a senator by the Catalan assembly, which was to vote on the matter on Thursday.
But it looked all but certain to fail after the ERC - a pro-independence party that garnered the most votes in Catalonia in the April election - said on Wednesday it would reject the nomination on the grounds that it was imposed on them.
The far-left separatist CUP also announced it would reject Iceta's bid and it is widely expected that pro-independence Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia), which controls the Catalan government, will do the same.
The three secessionist parties have 65 seats in the regional parliament, the same as its unionist parties, which could lead to a tie in Thursday's vote on Iceta's nomination - and that would mean it could not proceed, according to the chamber's rules.
Iceta has vowed to take his case to the Constitutional Court. "It (failed nomination) would be a democratic outrage," he told reporters on Wednesday.
Catalonia was a central issue in the run-up to the national election, with the opposition accusing Sanchez of undermining Spain's territorial integrity by granting concessions to Catalan separatists.
To be sworn in again as prime minister, Sanchez will need the support of other leftist parties plus at least one vote or abstention from Basque or Catalan nationalist parties.